Monday, November 12, 2018

The Eternally Persecuted Jew

Recently another horrible anti-Semitic act was perpetrated, and 11 innocent people seeking after God had their lives cut short. The hatred in the human heart is real, and even the most self-convinced charitable ones are guilty. We all need a savior, whether we know it or not, and sometimes even those who believe they are following their savior are woefully blind and lost. There is a great beauty and perfection in life. It’s a fountain and reservoir of mystery, and also a sad tragedy. The record of humanity has a scratch and sounds on a dissonant repeat that is offensive to the ear and painful to the soul.

A few months back a priest — a rector no less and a Dr. — were in a room together with a group of parishioners. No this is not the start of a joke, or is it? There was to be an informative discussion on some topic or another. The details of that topic have evaded me since, but the shock and dissonance of what to many in the room may have seemed a casual joke, still rings in my ears and unsettles my being. Somehow the conversation turned to the Middle East and in this context the notion of certain Jewish people whose sacred belief forbids them from building on certain land deemed Holy. “Ha Ha Ha!”, they laughed. “If they actually tried to build they would all fall dead, according to their own beliefs. Ha Ha Ha.” The room also joined in a perfunctory chuckle. But not me. I had a knot in my stomach, and everything within my being said something feels wrong here — very, very wrong. 

Should we really be laughing at the expense of both mocking a belief system (that clearly this priest understood as childish superstition) and people dying? And not just any people, the Jewish people. Have the atrocities committed against this particular group not made us the least bit sensitive to their plight? Does no one sense a cognizant dissonance here grating on their ears like that damn broken record that will not stop skipping?

I did not speak up and say something. I felt shocked and appalled. When I feel this way I shut down. The words do not come. I go home and machinate the complex of mixed emotions cursing through my blood. I talk to my "Dear and kind loving husband”* and eventually at three in the morning when I cannot sleep they pour on paper. I had thought sooner about writing a FB post . . . but I hesitated, not wanting to rock the boat, create more tension and discord. This same priest has mocked other people with different faith beliefs — those with whom he does not align — and considers his understandings oh so much better, smarter, more evolved. I wonder if these same Jewish people disposed of this sacred belief held for so long. Someday in the future decided to build on this Holy Land, perhaps materialism wins out and the illusion of the sacred mists into the clouds passing by and is no more. What if perchance terrible accidents began to happen, would he believe then? Would he honor those Jewish people then? He is so comfortable to get up in the pulpit and boast about how open and loving he is, how much he enjoyed a Seder dinner, and how certain lines in the Bible are not excuses for Jewish persecution, and yet . . . . Blindness is real and sometimes so easily seen.

The love of Jesus is not: I love and honor you as long as you agree with me, otherwise I am free to mock and scorn you. No, the love of Jesus says: I love you. That is all. Love your neighbor. That is all. Love me and love your neighbor. So simple and yet . . . . Will we ever cease to persecute the Jew who is love incarnate? “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things . . . that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:8,10).

Repent of that which does not allow you to love me more fully, he begs us, but I love you still. Seek me and you will find me. So merciful and so gentle. Can we find gentleness when dealing with that with which we disagree? Or are we in bondage to evil in all its forms? Hatred masked in so many cloaks of amor. This force has not the power to protect us, nor uplift. There are choices to be made and actions to follow. 

May the clarity of perfect truth shine a light to our mirrors and help us see, may the world know your peace. May the music of the heavens sing through humanity, and uplift us to your perfect Love. Amen.  

*An honest sentiment, but also a quote from the poem by Anne Bradstreet.